Letters being sent out to streamers in advance of the reveal

Araneae6537

Elsonso wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

fizl101 wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

MerguezMan wrote: »

Hum... aren't you guys being a bit overinterpretative ?

Because the letter has an hidden symbol revealed under black light, the chapter would obviously set in Blacklight ?

As far as we know, 2023's feature could be an accurate version of Tamriel's map

I’m missing something — what does blacklight have to do with the accuracy of Tamriel’s map?

Where the city of Blacklight should be located is currently being used by the Eastmarch zone on the ESO map

Ahhh, thank you, I was not familiar with that one! I would suggest it possible that it wasn’t yet built (unless lore already says otherwise), but given the precedent of cities from MUCH later TES games already existing in ESO, often in astonishingly similar form, it would be quite reasonable to expect the Redoran capital from Arena to exist as well!

The way ZOS explained it is that the maps are like the lore. They are subject to the whims of an unreliable narrator, so while they are "canon" they may not necessarily be an accurate reflection of reality.

That’s fine for maps in-game, but I would think that player maps, part of the UI, should be an accurate — although potentially incomplete — representation of the land. 🤔

blktauna wrote: »

I want to be a sload.

I want to be an Alfiq! 😻

cyclonus11

Y'all maybe the Numidium was used to fix the map during the Warp in the West

Elsonso

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

The way ZOS explained it is that the maps are like the lore. They are subject to the whims of an unreliable narrator, so while they are "canon" they may not necessarily be an accurate reflection of reality.

That’s fine for maps in-game, but I would think that player maps, part of the UI, should be an accurate — although potentially incomplete — representation of the land. 🤔

What will really bend your spoon is the realization that perhaps none of the maps in any of the games are actually accurate.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

ArchMikem wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

I see we're saving the world for the...oh, what are we up to now...fourth or fifth time?

Two of them, apparently.

When saving the World gets tiresome, why not add another World. Spice things up a bit.

That called natural progression

Syldras

jle30303 wrote: »

Who knows. Maybe a war of the wizards will see both Telvannis and Winterhold after the same thing?

The Telvanni are individualists. While I can imagine one Telvanni mage (or at most a small group of a few like-minded mages) being really interested in obtaining a certain artifact, I can't see the whole House being at war with another mages faction, especially if they're from abroad. Great House Telvanni will act as one if the House or whole Morrowind is endangered, but other than that - not so much.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

jaws343 wrote: »

logan68 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

I see we're saving the world for the...oh, what are we up to now...fourth or fifth time?

id love an expansion where the 3 banners war ended with winner holding the thrown

I doubt we get to the age of Tiber Septim during the course of ESO.

No need for that
By that time neither the pact nor the vovenent exist and the dominion is at its second incarnation
The end of the 3 banner war dont mean united tamriel but maby just no currently open confict for cyrodiil like for the time varen was on the throne and it may only last a few month /years lorewise

colossalvoids

Suddenly remembered my last interaction with Telvanni doing a Khajiit companion quest line, it was moderately cringy but I coped as a patient Dunmer but not sure zos can pull adequate and interesting Telvanni and might instead make something in the lines of black and white dumb and dumber card.

Syldras wrote: »

jle30303 wrote: »

Who knows. Maybe a war of the wizards will see both Telvannis and Winterhold after the same thing?

The Telvanni are individualists. While I can imagine one Telvanni mage (or at most a small group of a few like-minded mages) being really interested in obtaining a certain artifact, I can't see the whole House being at war with another mages faction, especially if they're from abroad. Great House Telvanni will act as one if the House or whole Morrowind is endangered, but other than that - not so much.

Pretty sure Azurah would love to help Old Man of the Woods to manipulate Dunmeri once more, but yeah some other war scenario is unlikely as we're having one going on the background all the time already and eso lately being more about unity rather than divide.

colossalvoids

Also to mess it up greatly and pull of a Sheogorath card I'd mention one particular text...

https://www.imperial-library.info/content/imperial-census-daedra-lords

Hermaeus paragraph obviously.
Than to remember that we had awful lot pointing over Aetherius and particularly Akatosh last year. Than remembering about one curious imperial in Blackreach wearing mananaut hat traveling through time... Nah, not giving myself any hope for a decent weird story that is actually feels like TES.

Edit: was Mora even a shard of Akatosh by some other text? Can't remember the source of this exact thought.
More conspiracy? sure:

Syldras

colossalvoids wrote: »

Suddenly remembered my last interaction with Telvanni doing a Khajiit companion quest line, it was moderately cringy but I coped as a patient Dunmer but not sure zos can pull adequate and interesting Telvanni and might instead make something in the lines of black and white dumb and dumber card.

I haven't played those quests yet (and I'm not sure when I will, because I'm not really interested in Ember and have enough to do with finishing to level Isobel and Bastian after I've already leveled Mirri), but this is one thing that I really find a bit worrisome (well, not really worrying, but you get what I mean). I think it's possible that they don't quite hit the characterization of House Telvanni and its individuals right, and it will all just become a huge cliché, focussing on "evil" things and slavery only, leaving out all other interesting aspects about the House. And especially after last year's sometimes extremely banal dialogues, I'm not sure if those will be more elaborated this time. Scholars shouldn't talk like children, shouldn't repeat themselves every few seconds (unless they're talking to a really stupid player character - but then I'd rather expect them to lose patience instead of calmly repeating the same fact for the third time), neither would it fit to have them babble bawdy innuendo, jokes/memes or other trivialities (not even saying a Telvanni couldn't be joking or say something lewd, but it would probably be on a different level than the dialogues we've seen on High Isle or Galen). Normally, this should be obvious, I guess, but after last year, I'm a bit sceptical.

colossalvoids wrote: »

Pretty sure Azurah would love to help Old Man of the Woods to manipulate Dunmeri once more, but yeah some other war scenario is unlikely as we're having one going on the background all the time already and eso lately being more about unity rather than divide.

I don't see why House Telvanni should be bothered by mages from some other part of the world, let alone act as a faction unless they or Morrowind are under attack (and the College of Winterhold or Mages Guild surely won't do that). Also, it looks like Hermaeus Mora will not be our opponent in this chapter, but we will cooperate with him.

Kallykat

I just hope this means I'll finally get to add Hermaeus Mora to the collection of Daedric statues in my house. Only two more to go after that!

Faulgor

Syldras wrote: »

I don't see why House Telvanni should be bothered by mages from some other part of the world, let alone act as a faction unless they or Morrowind are under attack (and the College of Winterhold or Mages Guild surely won't do that). Also, it looks like Hermaeus Mora will not be our opponent in this chapter, but we will cooperate with him.

In TES3, the Telvanni certainly had beef with the Mages Guild. Being a member of the Mages Guild gives you -3 reputation with any Telvanni, as bad as it gets, comparable to being a member of House Dagoth. The same is true vice versa, Mages Guild mages absolutely despise Telvanni. The Arch Mage literally tasks you with killing the entire Telvanni council. They are de facto mortal enemies.

Apparently it's down to different attitudes towards magic, with the Mages Guild offering magical training to everyone and the Telvanni being elitist isolationists. Telvanni also don't want to be bossed around, and see the expansionist conduct of the Imperial Mages Guild as a threat. They are an outlander institution that has no business in Morrowind, period. They have also been granted a monopoly on magical services - which you can work to overturn during a quest - so there are economic factors at play as well.

Syldras

Faulgor wrote: »

In TES3, the Telvanni certainly had beef with the Mages Guild. Being a member of the Mages Guild gives you -3 reputation with any Telvanni, as bad as it gets, comparable to being a member of House Dagoth. The same is true vice versa, Mages Guild mages absolutely despise Telvanni. The Arch Mage literally tasks you with killing the entire Telvanni council. They are de facto mortal enemies.

I know that the Telvanni are disliked by all factions even including the Tribunal Temple, but despising someone because of having very different philosophies doesn't necessarily mean war (by the way, the Mages Guild also hates the Tribunal temple with a -2 reputation). If the conflict would be as serious, there would be neither a Tribunal Temple nor a Mages Guild on Telvanni lands (and there are, both in Sadrith Mora, and a temple in Vos).

And about Arch-Mage Trebonius and his request to assassinate all Telvanni councilors: You must have realized that he didn't have the best reputation even with fellow guild members and acts strangely in several aspects. There's even a quest (given my some other guild member) about a Telvanni spy in one of the guild houses, who happens to be Trebonius' "special advisor on Dunmer Issues". Of course you can tell Trebonius about what you found out, but he will deny it and your disposition will drop severely. So, knowing this could really make you wonder what's going on, no? At least to me it seems that the Telvanni assassination request is not an issue of the Mages Guild as a whole. Or, to make it more obvious: A private plot by either Trebonius or, even more probable, his Telvanni advisor who obviously seems to want to get rid of the current Telvanni councilors for his own benefits.

But anyway, we're not in the 3rd era now, things are different, and as the Mages Guild is portrayed positively in ESO, I don't think there could be a quest about them trying to end Great House Telvanni or even just threatening them.

Faulgor wrote: »

Telvanni also don't want to be bossed around, and see the expansionist conduct of the Imperial Mages Guild as a threat. They are an outlander institution that has no business in Morrowind, period. They have also been granted a monopoly on magical services - which you can work to overturn during a quest - so there are economic factors at play as well.

While they dislike eachother and there are also economic factors I doubt the Telvanni see them as a real threat. Otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to have an outpost in Sadrith Mora.

Elsonso

Syldras wrote: »

I don't see why House Telvanni should be bothered by mages from some other part of the world, let alone act as a faction unless they or Morrowind are under attack (and the College of Winterhold or Mages Guild surely won't do that). Also, it looks like Hermaeus Mora will not be our opponent in this chapter, but we will cooperate with him.

While House Telvanni may be rather socially awkward and tend to keep to themselves, that does not mean that they don't covet that which others may hold that they want. They aren't going to mount armies and go forth to battle, at least not in the traditional manner, but if they want something, they are going to go after it. Together, or individually, only matters based on how many want that thing. If nothing else, they have egos that are larger than the combined footprint of the House.

It is entirely conceivable that a story could be built around a conflict between two factions of mages trying to find and control a magical artifact of great power. This manner of story could even be extended into a multiple year arc, especially if the artifact isn't the real danger, but the search for it leads to that danger.

No matter, though. This Chapter is all about them getting revenge for the petty complaints, jokes, and criticism about their poor excuse for mushroom towers in this Era. Tamriel shall rue the day that they made fun of the Telvanni mushroom towers. Rue the day.

Syldras

Elsonso wrote: »

While House Telvanni may be rather socially awkward and tend to keep to themselves, that does not mean that they don't covet that which others may hold that they want. They aren't going to mount armies and go forth to battle, at least not in the traditional manner, but if they want something, they are going to go after it.

I don't doubt that at all. But that wouldn't lead to a "war of the mages". A race, a competition, rivalry? For sure. But a war is an open physical violent conflict between two (or more) factions, and that's not typical for the Telvanni and even less for the other known bigger factions of mages in ESO.

Elsonso wrote: »

Together, or individually, only matters based on how many want that thing.

I don't think there are many things all could agree on or be interested in, to be honest. They're not as unified as some people seem to think.

Elsonso wrote: »

If nothing else, they have egos that are larger than the combined footprint of the House.

That's exactly the reason why I say they don't feel threatened by other mages. They might consider them a nuisance and an insult for the arcane arts, but feeling threatened means being afraid. And I highly doubt that they take the Mages Guild or even the College of Winterhold serious enough for that. If you ask a random higher ranked Telvanni about the College of Winterhold, he's probably tell you he doesn't care for these hillbillies from a far-away land and that you should please refrain from asking him even more stupid questions.

Olauron

Syldras wrote: »

If you ask a random higher ranked Telvanni about the College of Winterhold, he's probably tell you he doesn't care for these hillbillies from a far-away land and that you should please refrain from asking him even more stupid questions.

From Neloth:

(Dovahkin) You must be almost as powerful as Savros Aren of Winterhold.
(Neloth) Savros? Ha! He wouldn't be fit to be my apprentice. Of course he does have a knack for wards that would be handy to learn. If you see him, let him know that I might be willing to take him on as my apprentice. For a price of course.

(Dovahkin) As the Archmage of Winterhold, you and I should share our secrets.
(Neloth) Winterhold? That small college that is falling into the Sea of Ghosts? You're the one that recovered the Staff of Magnus. Impressive. Talvas should finish his apprenticeship in a couple of decades. Come see me then. I think I could teach you a trick or two.

Syldras

Olauron wrote: »

From Neloth:
(Dovahkin) You must be almost as powerful as Savros Aren of Winterhold.
(Neloth) Savros? Ha! He wouldn't be fit to be my apprentice. Of course he does have a knack for wards that would be handy to learn. If you see him, let him know that I might be willing to take him on as my apprentice. For a price of course.

(Dovahkin) As the Archmage of Winterhold, you and I should share our secrets.
(Neloth) Winterhold? That small college that is falling into the Sea of Ghosts? You're the one that recovered the Staff of Magnus. Impressive. Talvas should finish his apprenticeship in a couple of decades. Come see me then. I think I could teach you a trick or two.

I didn't have that dialogue in mind, but yeah, that's exactly the sentiment I meant.

BretonMage

Eh. They're all as eccentric as can be. Neloth keeps returning for some reason, but the only one I wish would make an appearance is Aryon. As our mentor in TES III, I'm sure we're all rather fond of him, aren't we? The first thing I did when I got ESO Morrowind was to trek over to Vos to see what it was like in 2E. Unfortunately Aryon was nowhere to be found.

Elsonso

Olauron wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

If you ask a random higher ranked Telvanni about the College of Winterhold, he's probably tell you he doesn't care for these hillbillies from a far-away land and that you should please refrain from asking him even more stupid questions.

From Neloth:

(Dovahkin) You must be almost as powerful as Savros Aren of Winterhold.
(Neloth) Savros? Ha! He wouldn't be fit to be my apprentice. Of course he does have a knack for wards that would be handy to learn. If you see him, let him know that I might be willing to take him on as my apprentice. For a price of course.

(Dovahkin) As the Archmage of Winterhold, you and I should share our secrets.
(Neloth) Winterhold? That small college that is falling into the Sea of Ghosts? You're the one that recovered the Staff of Magnus. Impressive. Talvas should finish his apprenticeship in a couple of decades. Come see me then. I think I could teach you a trick or two.

I think that the bigger thing to remember is that this dialog takes place several hundred years after the events of the upcoming chapter. What if the sentiment expressed above can trace back to events in the 2nd Era when the two groups were in conflict.

Honestly, I don't think that this is going to be the Chapter subject. My point is more along the lines that there is no LORE reason why it could not happen. Furthermore, if ZOS were to do this, then there would be a lore reason why it could happen.

Syldras

BretonMage wrote: »

Eh. They're all as eccentric as can be. Neloth keeps returning for some reason, but the only one I wish would make an appearance is Aryon. As our mentor in TES III, I'm sure we're all rather fond of him, aren't we? The first thing I did when I got ESO Morrowind was to trek over to Vos to see what it was like in 2E. Unfortunately Aryon was nowhere to be found.

I think there's a dialogue somewhere in TES3 that he's the youngest and newest member of the council. So it's possible he's not even born yet.

Elsonso wrote: »

I think that the bigger thing to remember is that this dialog takes place several hundred years after the events of the upcoming chapter. What if the sentiment expressed above can trace back to events in the 2nd Era when the two groups were in conflict.

Oh, they already hate each other (or at least some of them obviously do). Have you talked to the Mages Guild guy in Sadrith Mora at the harbour with a character who has not joined them (yet)? He seems to assume you're there to join House Telvanni and tries to convince you to join the Mages Guild instead, and the words he has for House Telvanni aren't the friendliest.

ElvenOverlord

Honestly don't need any new races, we have every race from every nation that make up Tamriel. Any other race would be one we are in constant conflict with and they wouldn't fit within the current lore when levelling which would be immersion breaking. As cool as it would be, being a Sload, Maormer, or Tsaesci wouldn't make any sense given the narratives in the game they would quest through. I'm all for a new class or skill lines however.

ZOS_Kevin

A little tease to help your theory crafting:

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/1616442936065167365

Elsonso

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

A little tease to help your theory crafting:

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/1616442936065167365

Confirmed. The new Chapter will have wind noises!

Syldras

Elsonso wrote: »

Confirmed. The new Chapter will have wind noises!

Waves, greenish sky,...

Elsonso

Syldras wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Confirmed. The new Chapter will have wind noises!

Waves, greenish sky,...

Star Trek crossover. Obviously, a warp core coolant leak incoming.

More seriously... the fog of uncertainty... Apocrypha. (Edit in case that was not obvious)

Syldras

Elsonso wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Confirmed. The new Chapter will have wind noises!

Waves, greenish sky,...

Star Trek crossover. Obviously, a warp core coolant leak incoming.

More seriously... the fog of uncertainty...

And the Telvanni are to blame. It's always the Telvanni.

BretonMage

It's the mists of time.

Syldras wrote: »

I think there's a dialogue somewhere in TES3 that he's the youngest and newest member of the council. So it's possible he's not even born yet.

He's probably quite young, but since Dunmer live hundreds of years naturally, and he's a magister (edit: oops, master) by the time you meet him, I think he must have been born by 2E.

Seraphayel

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

A little tease to help your theory crafting:

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/1616442936065167365

I love the eyes on the ouroboros!

HailstoSithis

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

A little tease to help your theory crafting:

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/1616442936065167365

EDIT: Okay, wowow... Based on the quote from the link above "...Let us preserve what threatens to unravel, like pages tossed in a roaring fire.", the quote below and the quote from the letters sent out, "Many paths lead forward, but only one ends with the survival of Nirn. At this particular moment, in this specific instance, you must be the thread that keeps reality itself from unraveling.", I now believe we will visit an instance of a possible future(s?) to prevent our timeline from entering a point in history where Tamriel meets it doom. We will be summoned "...as soon as the inescapable fortunes of consequence show..." Leramil the Wise "...where we are headed most."

I could be wrong there, but here is something to support this claim; Hermaeus Mora "...is a Daedric Prince whose sphere is forbidden knowledge and the "scrying of the tides of Fate, of the past and future as read in the stars and heavens, and in whose dominion are the treasures of knowledge and memory"."

Sources: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Book_of_Daedra
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hermaeus_Mora

Elsonso

Seraphayel wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

A little tease to help your theory crafting:

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/1616442936065167365

I love the eyes on the ouroboros!

Also note that only two of the three heads in the logo are plainly visible. The third is obscured by the fog. We now know what part of Tamriel this will involve.

Syldras

BretonMage wrote: »

He's probably quite young, but since Dunmer live hundreds of years naturally, and he's a magister (edit: oops, master) by the time you meet him, I think he must have been born by 2E.

Or maybe he progressed in rank very fast. We can't say for sure as we don't know how old he really is. To me, personally, he didn't seem that old in TES3, especially compared to Therana, who's old (and quite insane) in the 3rd era - and she's still a young woman now in ESO. Considering he's possibly much younger, maybe he's still a kid at the moment, and as there aren't any visible kids in ESO...